The booking agent, the journalist, and the sound guy are all names that every musician should, and likely already does, have on speed dial. It’s pretty much a known fact in the music industry that networking is key. However, we also need to network outside of our industry, because quite often, we end up connecting with folks who boost our career unexpectedly. Here are five unlikely connections that you should add to your network ASAP!

At the Grammys on Sunday evening, major labels won big across the most popular genres, and Universal Music Group nudged out Sony Music for the most wins — 13 to 12 — across 50 recorded music categories.

Major label-associated companies brought in 17 of the 20 Grammy categories — 85 percent — associated with pop, rock, R&B, hip-hop, country and dance/electronic. Universal-owned Capitol Records came away with five of these (three trophies for Sam Smith and two wins by Beck, which label head Steve Barnett was quite pleased with).

WASHINGTON–The U.S. Copyright Office today issued a comprehensive report – “Copyright and the Music Marketplace” – with its recommendations on how to modernize music licensing. Below is a comment on the report from RIAA Chairman and CEO Cary Sherman:

“The Copyright Office has made an important contribution to the ongoing conversation about modernizing the copyright laws. They have given all of us in the music community a lot to digest and reflect upon.

The Grammys have actually liked him since the ’90s, though this is his first major win.

So this guy named Beck just beat Beyoncé and Sam Smith to win the 2015 Grammy for album of the year. If you don’t know who he is, there’s a good chance you’re under the age of 25 or don’t follow alternative music much.

Grammys 2015: All Our Coverage

But that’s fine! And trust us, we’re just as surprised as you are (and probably Beck, too) that he won.

We are very excited about some new site features which will launch on Thursday of next week (January 15th) but we won’t spoil the surprise for you here. Just be sure to log in next week to see and experience them!

But we don’t think it would be fair to surprise you with a price hike. So, as much as we hate to do it, we’re increasing the $4 Transaction fee on Music Xray to $5 effective on January 15th.

We know this isn’t going to be popular. Music Xray has maintained the $4 transaction fee for over three years. In the meantime, a lot of our costs have increased. You’ve probably noticed a lot more top tier accounts on Music Xray and a lot more sophistication on the site itself. This has required Music Xray to make investments and to incur costs.

Before taking the decision to increase this transaction fee, we’ve thought long and hard and we’ve made other decisions in the past year to delay this increase for as long as possible.

We hope you will continue to work with us and to trust that we would not make a decision like this frivolously.

We are a company that runs very lean and we take very seriously our jobs of creating a better way for you to reach the decision makers of the industry. Even with this price increase, Music Xray will remain far-and-away the best and least costly way of getting your music to the ears of the industry.

To celebrate the arrival of 2015 we’re extending yesterday’s special offer through midnight tonight.

Forward this page to your musician friends so they can get in on this special day too.

One of the most interesting aspects of Music Xray is how all its parts work in unison to maximize the likelihood your songs will be discovered by the industry.

As you know, before a song can be submitted to an industry professional on Music Xray, it is required that users purchase Diagnostics. Some users of Music Xray have suggested that perhaps this requirement is frivolous and simply a way for Music Xray to capture more revenue from users than they would normally spend.

But what is often misunderstood about Diagnostics is that it helps the industry discover your songs.

Music Xray offers industry professionals access to a sophisticated search engine called Needlestack Music Search.

Every day professionals use this search engine to find the best new music on the site. They do this by looking at the ratings a song has been awarded by other industry professionals. However, there would be way too much music to listen to if every industry professional didn’t have intelligent ways to filter.

So, most professionals set the filters in Needlestack to display only the songs that have average high ratings by 5 or more industry professionals.

In other words, if your song hasn’t accumulated at least 5 industry ratings, it is unlikely to be found. That’s why Diagnostics gets your song 5 industry ratings immediately, upon your first transaction on the site. In fact, each month an increasing number of deals occur due to songs having been found by professionals using Needlestack.

Below is an image of Needlestack. Notice the search criteria settings. This particular search is showing the industry professionals:

All the energetic pop songs sung by females with a BPM range between 10 and 300 that in the past month have been heard by at least 5 industry professionals and that have received average ratings of at least 4 out of 5 stars on all criteria (composition, productions, arrangement, performance, and hit potential.

Show me all the energetic pop songs sung by females with a BPM range between 10 and 300 that have been heard by at least 5 industry professionals in the past week and that get an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars on all criteria.

Even including the modest cost of Diagnostics, Music Xray remains the most transparent, affordable, and straight-forward way of getting your music to industry professionals with the guarantee of a listen and response. Remember, Music Xray charges no membership fees. There are no hidden costs. There is no competitor who can even come close to providing the value we provide for a lower (or even a comparable) cost.